I'm planning to go to Alaska with our whole family -- 2 grandmothers (80+) and 3 mid-twenties plus 4 adults and one 13 year old girl. Any recommendations on which cruise line works best for this group? We'd probably depart from Seattle, but could drive up to Vancouver. Thoughts?

Welcome to Cruise-Chat. You have several good choices for a multi-generational cruise.

Tops on the list for younger passengers (the 3 20 somethings) would have to be Either Carnival (but they have only one ship doing Alaska on one way voyages only) or Royal Caribbean (more choices and they do both one way or round trip). Alaska is not much of a party destination and even these ships will have a good mix of age groups. The NCL Pearl is another very good choice for a lot to offer for each age group and plenty of younger passengers as well.

The other lines will have a little older avg age and not a lot of 20 somethings. Princess would be another good choice they, along with Holland America will have more ships and itinerary options than anyone else there. Scratch Holland from your list though, it would not be a good choice with a mix of younger passengers. That just leaves Celebrity and some lesser known options I won't even go into. I'd also scratch Celebrity with 3 20 somethings.

With your demographics I'd say a good list to look further into would be, in no particular order....

From Seattle

Golden Princess
Star Princess
RCCL Rhapsody of the Seas
Norwegian Pearl (Probably the nicest ship there although a little different experience from the more traditional cruiselines.)

From Vancouver

RCCL Serenade of the Seas

Look at who has the best values and itineries you prefer. I'm sure there will be others here with alternative recommendations as well. Have a great time and let us know what you decide.

I think the Alaskan trips attract an older crowd, or at least a crowd with multi generation families. On our last trip we were on a shuttle from the cruise terminal to our car. There was a group on the shuttle with 4-6 late teens to early twenty's. There were complaining about all the old folks on the Carnival Spirit.
We were on the Holland American Zaandam. It was an older crowd but there was a mixture of families aboard. We loved the cruise, it was a 7 day round trip out of Vancouver. Have also been on the Sun Princess out of Seattle. It was also a 7 day round trip. We enjoyed the itinerary of the Zaandam more. The both included Skagway, Juneau, Tracy's Arm and Ketchikan. Hal also did Glacier Bay, it was beautiful.